Wednesday, January 6, 2016

NTT DOCOMO to Deploy ALU's 7950 IP Core/Edge Routers

NTT DOCOMO will deploy Alcatel-Lucent's 7950 Extensible Routing System for supporting its 68 million mobile subscribers in Japan. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Alcatel-Lucent said the deployment of its 7950 XRS core/edge router strengthens a long-standing relationship with NTT DOCOMO, particularly in the supply of IP technology. Alcatel-Lucent previously supplied its 7750 Service Router series and 7450 Ethernet Service Switch for DOCOMO's Border GateWay Router and Radio Access Network Switch projects.

"NTT DOCOMO is a company that is well-known for its emphasis on quality and reliability to offer the most innovative services to customers. As such, we are very pleased to be able to deliver our powerful IP core/edge router to help NTT DOCOMO support the increasing mobile traffic and the introduction of 5G," stated Nicolas Bouverot, President of Alcatel-Lucent Japan.

NTT DOCOMO is expanding its industry collaboration program for 5G. The company announced individual collaborations with five additional vendors: Intel, Keysight Technologies, Panasonic Corporation, Qualcomm Technologies, and Rohde & Schwarz GmbH & Co.

DOCOMO and its vendor-partners expect to begin technical discussions and various indoor trials at the DOCOMO R&D Center in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture within the current fiscal year ending in March 2016. The trials will expand to outdoor settings thereafter. Key findings and achievements will be shared with global research bodies and at international conferences. Through the collaborations, DOCOMO expects to evaluate and verify its proprietary 5G technologies and thereby accelerate 5G standardization.

Since May 2014, DOCOMO has been working with a number of other vendors, including Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Mitsubishi Electric, NEC, Nokia and Samsung.

DOCOMO said it aims to introduce 5G on a commercial basis in 2020. 5G is being developed for ultra-high-speed data transmissions of over 10Gbps and 1,000 times the capacity of LTE, which will help address the proliferation of connected items in the emerging Internet of Things (IoT), as well as to support the increasingly diverse range of mobile services.

"Global expectations for 5G are growing as we approach the start of the standardization phase," said Seizo Onoe, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at DOCOMO. "We are delighted to form these new collaborations on 5G experimental trials for wider technical areas to establish the 5G ecosystem with additional world-leading global vendors to promote R&D targeted at 5G deployment in 2020."